Careers Spotlight @ SSC

Over the holidays, three Year 11 students attended a week-long Engineering holiday workshop run by Engineers Australia. The reflections of some of the students and photos from their experience are below.

Over the break a group of us participated in Cochlear Autumn School of Engineering, with 80 students in NSW, visiting universities across NSW learning about courses, scholarships, and their facilities. We also visited companies such as: HMAS Kuttabul, Cochlear, and Sydney Trains learning about the job opportunities that they provide for engineering. I would highly recommend this to students at Santa who are interested in Engineering as it gives insights into the many opportunities available at universities and the workforce.

Along with all these opportunities, Engineering Australia also organised a pizza night at the University of Sydney where many different engineers studying and working in different branches came and visited us, offering their knowledge in their field. People studying engineering at different universities spoke to us, offering advice on universities and how they are structured and many people working in different engineering fields showed us what they do on a daily basis and what was needed for them to reach the position that they are in now. Civil, structural, environmental, mining, chemical, electrical, biomedical and many other engineers came to speak to us about the many different branches of engineering. 
Miela Ocello and Zara Zanic
Year 11

Term 2 is shaping up to be a busy one in the Careers Program. In Week 1, Year 10 completed their Morrisby Careers Profiling and we look forward to parents and students of Year 10 joining us in a live webinar, facilitated by Educational Psychologist and Morrisby NSW Director, Emma Goodsir who will unpack how to interpret the results of profile before results are released. This will take place on Monday 27 May at 6:00pm and families have been emailed the MS Teams link directly. It is strongly recommended for all families to be in attendance in order to benefit from the detailed analysis of the profile structure and to inform career planning and subject selection decisions.

This week, we celebrate National Careers Week which takes place each year in May. The purpose of the week is to highlight and celebrate the personal, economic and social benefits of careers development and planning. It also aims to raise aspirations, challenge stereotypes and broaden horizons about careers whilst recognising the need for ongoing reskilling and upskilling to support career development throughout life. It is never too early for young people to begin discussing and researching their career aspirations. The more informed students are, the greater their capacity to make appropriate career-related decisions that suit their individual needs and priorities. I encourage students to reach out if they need further guidance. 

In light of National Careers Week, a range of activities and events have been organised for students to participate in. During Homeroom, students have taken part in activities designed to spark interesting conversations and encourage students to consider career paths they haven’t come across before. These conversations can be further developed at home through the use of these career conversation cards to continue to explore your child’s career interests.

On Tuesday, Year 12 had the privilege to hear from three students in the Class of 2023 in their first year of university study in a Co-op Scholarship Program. These are lucrative scholarships sponsored by major companies which provide students with paid internships, mentoring and networking experience, leadership training and are worth approximately $20,000-25,000 per annum. Ruby Bron and Erica Comito represented the UNSW Co-op program where they both study a Bachelor of Business Information Systems, whilst Heer Aurora represented the UTS Engineering Co-op Scholarship where she studies a Bachelor of Software Engineering. Ruby, Erica and Heer spoke very highly of their respective Co-op scholarship programs and the benefits of being a Co-op scholar. They reminded students that universities look for well rounded individuals in these programs and emphasised that selection is not solely based on academic merit. I encourage Year 12 students to consider this invaluable opportunity and speak to me if they have further questions. 

National Careers Week will end with our much anticipated annual Career Women’s Network Breakfast which is a fantastic opportunity for senior students to gain insights into the career paths of members of our community and hear from guest speaker and ex-student, Justine Schofield. We look forward to welcoming many members of our community to the breakfast on Friday and trust that it will be an enriching experience for our students and career mentors who take part.

Upcoming Careers Events and Opportunities

Please encourage your child to register for the relevant careers events being held over the next few weeks linked here. 

Eva Guirguis
Head of Future Pathways and Partnerships